1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to non-permanent body images and, more particularly, to a device for producing sun induced body tattoos.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Over the years, various devices and methods for producing non-permanent body tattoos have been developed in order to decorate in multitude of methods, shapes and colours the human skin without resorting to the well known primitive tattooing methods which are painful and result in permanent images on the skin. For instance, images are now produced by the application on the skin of an ink impregnated sponge element having a decorative shape. Other devices include transferable dye images and decal images.
Transferable dye images use water-soluble dyes printed in a certain pattern on a substrate. The image is transferred on the skin by wetting the substrate's pattern and by then pressing the same against the skin. The images so produced are often smeared. Furthermore, perspiration or water coming in contact with the skin will cause the image to streak as the dye is water-soluble. Decal images include a printed image on a substrate which is adhesively positioned on the wearer's skin.
All of the above devices or methods result in images which are either printed on the skin or adhesively mounted thereto.
Conventional permanent tattoos are marked on the skin with a pattern by puncturing the skin and inserting a pigment. From that basic method which uses the skin pigmentation came the concept of producing temporary tattoos on the skin by using the sun's U.V. radiation to selectively, that is with a certain pattern, increase the pigmentation of the skin thereby resulting in the tanning thereof. It is known that U.V. radiation emitted by the sun or by U.V. lamps excites over a period of time the melanocytes in the basal layer of the skin to increase pigmentation. Patented devices using this principle to tattoo the skin are presented hereinbelow.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,805, issued on June 26, 1956 to Allen, discloses a mask having a laminated structure and having opaque portions thereof defining a pattern. The mask which is made of a flexible material comprises an adhesive surface whereby the mask can be applied on the body. The mask further includes a central aperture having an outline defining a design provided with an insert layer coloured so as to yield a controlled degree of transparency to skin tanning rays through this central aperture. Submitting the skin provided with such a mask to tanning rays will result in a dark tanned skin around the perimeter of the opaque portion of the mask and in a lighter tanned design on the skin corresponding with central aperture of the mask. The skin positioned under the opaque portion of the mask will remain substantially untanned.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,854,821, issued on Nov. 24, 1932 to Barker, discloses a further mask which comprises cut-out portions forming a predetermined design. The mask can be mounted to a garment such as a bathing suit, whereby exposure of the mask to tanning rays will result in a brown design on the skin corresponding with the cut-out portions of the mask with the skin surrounding the perimeter of the mask being also tanned. Of course, the skin located underneath the uncut portions of the mask will remain substantially untanned.
While the patterns resulting from the ink impregnated sponge element and transferable dye method described briefly hereinbefore produce ink images which are water-soluble and thus inconvenient, the above methods for producing skin tattoos using the tanning rays of the sun are uncomfortable to the wearer as a mask is either adhesively mounted to the wearer's skin or directly mounted to a bathing suit, in which case slight displacement of the mask will result in a relatively blurred pattern on the skin. Furthermore, the swimming suit mounted masks do not offer the possibility of tattooing the skin on every desired part thereof.